According to seismologist Jackie Caplan-Auerbach, the audience that packed into Lumen Field across those two nights caused seismic activity that equates to a 2.3 magnitude earthquake.
Caplan-Auerbach discovered the jump in movement when members of the Pacific Northwest earthquake group she moderates on Facebook pointed out the comparison between Swift’s show and the “Beast Quake”.
In 2011, Marshawn “Beast Mode” Lynch – running back of the American football team Seahawks – scored a touchdown which sent the crowd wild. That specific event registered between and one and two magnitude earthquake.
Taylor Swift fans at the Seattle shows of the Eras Tour caused seismic activity equivalent of a 2.3 magnitude earthquake, according to seismologist. pic.twitter.com/kiQgSEhcjo
— Pop Base (@PopBase) July 28, 2023
“The shaking was twice as strong as ‘Beast Quake.’ The primary difference is the duration of shaking. Cheering after a touchdown lasts for a couple seconds, but eventually it dies down,” Caplan-Auerbach told CNN. “It’s much more random than a concert. For Taylor Swift, I collected about ten hours of data where rhythm controlled the behavior. The music, the speakers, the beat. All that energy can drive into the ground and shake it.”
“I grabbed the data from both nights of the concert and quickly noticed they were clearly the same pattern of signals,” Caplan-Auerbach added. “If I overlay them on top of each other, they’re nearly identical.”
